This relates to the securing of a vessel such as a tanker, to a moored body such as a buoy or another vessel that is moored to the sea floor.
Tankers are often temporarily secured to moored bodies that lie at the sea surface and that are moored to the sea floor. The moored body is often a buoy or vessel that floats at the sea surface and that is moored by catemary chains to the sea floor. However, some moored bodies lying at the sea surface are moored by a single anchor leg or form the top of a fixed tower. Tankers are often moored to such bodies by elastic mooring lines which have one line end fixed to the vessel bow (sometimes the stem) and an opposite end fixed to the moored body. The elastic line is designed to elongate under an increasing load so the tanker can remain moored in difficult weather without exceeding line tension capacity. In a severe sea state, the capacity of the elastic line can be exceeded and the tanker must cast off when severe weather is approaching. A system for securing a vessel to the moored body, which enables the vessel to remain moored in more severe weather, would be of value.